Time for Ponyboy
by atyler4474
Summary: Darry and Soda reflect on the birth of their youngest brother, plus what they remember of their parents' shared feelings about it.


Time for Ponyboy

Lightning flashed as bright as day. Ginormous thunderbolts of Zeus shook the house. Mamma Curtis woke, groaning and gasping, waking Daddy Curtis. He turned on the lamp to find sweat and blood surrounding his wife's body! In a flurry, he called 911, and put sponges to her forehead, trying to calm her till they came. Meanwhile, Soda awakened, bawling, with a spooked, but trying to be brave, Darry, rushing into the room. Darry tried to comfort Soda, but poor Daddy Curtis ultimately had to speak as soothingly as he could to all three at once. Finally, the paramedics came and the siren screamed as the ambulance sloshed through the rising waters. Daddy Curtis wished to God he could ride with Margaret, but somebody had to stay with Darry and Soda, who were only 6 and 2 ½ years old. He held them both close to his chest.

Darry's perspective: I thought somebody had bombed the house! I heard my little brother Soda screech. I went to his bed in the room we shared, but he was already charging in the direction of Mom and Dad's bedroom, where the lamp was on. It was a soft glow of gold, unlike the blinding lights that were going on outside. Racing after him, I stopped dead in my tracks. Mom was lying in red liquid, moaning and panting, with Dad wiping her forehead. Soda and I both shouted then. Dad turned to us to hush, Mom was just about to have The Baby and doctors and nurses would come to take care of her.

In another flurry of activity, they all came-and took Mom away on an ambulance. I held a crying Soda and Dad held us both.

Soda's perspective: I was only 2 ½ and can't remember much of it, except loud noises, harsh light in my eyes, and running to my parent's bedroom for comfort-only to find commotion. Darry reached out to hold me, but went into a terror of his own when he saw Mom in pain and with blood about her. We were too young to understand what it meant, or certainly I was. Then Dad told us about The Baby coming. Then there was a rush of strangers in white, and Mom was gone! Where were they taking her? Was she never coming back? I really wailed then, but Darry and Dad held me.

Daddy Curtis scrambled about trying to dress the boys and explaining again and again that Mamma would come back, that she only had to go to deliver The Baby and they were on their way to go to a place called The Hospital. Praising God that the truck was high and praying that it would not get stuck in the flooded water, Mr. Darrell drove, making sure Darry had his stuffed blue bear and rabbit, and Soda his stuffed black lamb, Hugs and red spotted horse, Charger, and led them all inside.

Darry's perspective: Murky brown water spattered up our windshield. I grasped Bear Man and Blue Hops in one arm and hugged Soda, who was still crying intermittently with the other. We were going in slow motion-Would we never arrive?

Soda's perspective: A blur of fever pitched excitement I could not comprehend. We went through angry crests of water I thought were monsters trying to get at me, but Big Brother Darry and Daddy were there to protect me.

Darry's perspective: I barely knew how to tell time, but the hands on the clock crept by eternally. Daddy, himself exhausted, was rocking Soda, who was wrapped in a light blue blanket. I wandered over nearby to play with a toy in which a person could manipulate little red balls to move up and down wires.

Daddy's perspective: I thought I'd never get them (Darry and Soda, especially Soda, to calm down). Soda yelled in horror for what seemed like hours until Darry and I both quieted him. All the while, I was fervently hoping we would not sink into a wet grave!

Mamma's perspective: I had to be taken away from my little ones, Darry and Soda, who were sobbing their eyes out. Sick at heart, I was loaded onto a stretcher and sped off into the waiting ambulance. Thank God Darrell was there with them, and he said all three of them would soon be on their way, which they were.

Darry's perspective: A thin wail could be heard, along with footsteps of a nurse in a white dress. Smiling, she handed a tiny bundle in an even smaller pale blue blanket into Daddy's waiting arms. It reminded me of Soda at that age, only he seemed littler still, plus with a sort of strawberry color in his golden fuzz. Additionally, he seemed frailer, quieter and didn't throw his spindly arms around as much. Right then, I knew I had to be there to defend this fragile one, this new little buddy, more so even than for Soda.

Soda's perspective: They put this weird, wrinkled and red teeny thing in Daddy's arms. Darry and I had to look. It was the strangest yet tiniest looking being I'd ever seen, and I was bewildered by it. Slowly, though, I touched the thing and began to feel sorry for it, because it seemed distressed. Daddy and Darry were smiling in awe.

Hours later, the family was gathered in the room, with The Baby in Blue sleeping next to Mamma, who had a special look of love in her eyes. Daddy, Darry and Soda had just come in from the gift shop where they had purchased a stuffed golden horse. The toy horse and The Baby in Blue's reddish fuzz brought to Daddy's Curtis' mind The Red Pony, by John Steinbeck, so The Baby in Blue was thus named Ponyboy. Mamma, meanwhile, who had picked out the middle names because she wanted them to be of Christian derivation (they had both picked the first name Darrell for their eldest), thought that "Who is Like God" would work best for this one's middle name.

See .com for name origins in this story and in "Darry's Debut"

Shaynne, or Shane-God is Gracious

Patrick-Noble

Michael-Who is Like God


End file.
